Center for the Arts

Having grown up between Minnesota and Mexico, Lila Downs holds great pride in her expansive heritage of being the child of a Scottish-American father and Mixtec mother. In an interview with Reforma magazine, Downs recalls her mother, a singer as well, giving her advice when she was young, “Lila, canta con sentimiento o no cantes. Lila, sing with feeling or don’t sing at all.”

Mozart’s beloved four-act comic opera, "The Marriage of Figaro," is the kind of mad and frantic bedroom farce from which guilty (and not-so-guilty) pleasures are made. Artistic Director of Virginia Opera (VAO), Adam Turner, states, “This story, these characters-they're all incredibly relevant and resonant. You’ll find a way to see a connection with these characters in some fashion because these are all still themes we still explore today.”

Coming to the Center for the Arts this March, SW!NG OUT is a full-length multidisciplinary work showcasing the Lindy Hop, a swing dance style born in 1930s Harlem that has since exploded into a vibrant, international community.

Prolific, Black female choreographer Camille A. Brown tackles these profound but straightforward questions through vibrant, intensely athletic, story-infused social dance that has brought the pint-sized phenom tremendous acclaim and catapulted her to fame.

Tis the season to be jolly! And it’s time to celebrate the holidays with the winter season’s favorite music once again! After a two-year hiatus in response to COVID-19, the American Festival Pops Orchestra (AFPO) returns to the Hylton Performing Arts Center and Center for the Arts at George Mason University this December with Holiday Pops: Songs of the Season.

On Saturday, November 20 at 8 p.m., George Mason University’s Reva and Sid Dewberry Family School of Music is proud to present the Jazz4Justice™ 20th Anniversary Concert, a one-of-a-kind event celebrating Northern Virginia’s love of music while raising funds to support legal services for low-income Northern Virginians and the George Mason University Jazz Studies program.

Making its premiere at The Joyce Theater in New York in October, SW!NG OUT had critics and audiences tapping their toes and snapping their fingers.

The 2021-2022 season began with an exciting ‘welcome back’ to in-person events, but the Center isn’t done celebrating live performances just yet.

Bill Blagg is changing reality one city at a time and Fairfax is next!

Beginning October 18, and until further notice, all attendees of indoor events or performances at the Center for the Arts, regardless of age, must be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the date of their visit or show a negative COVID-19 test result upon entry. Face coverings will be required for patrons ages two and up.